Why should everybody care about special care dentistry?

Abstract

Special care dentistry (SCD), one of 13 dental specialties, is the most recent addition to the GDC Speciality List, in 2008. Yet, SCD is often an area which dentists and dental care professionals only encounter via referral or directly within a secondary care or community dental setting. At undergraduate level, though a listed aspect of the GDC's curriculum, experiences within special care departments are often limited. Additionally, with other specialties such as restorative dentistry taking precedence, there is a risk of SCD being viewed as an adjunct to the main curriculum. Despite this, lessons learned from SCD are key to understanding the holistic patient-centred experience. It is an opportunity to combine advanced clinical knowledge with patient management, which all dental professionals should possess in order to fulfil our duty of care for all. The aim of this article is to explore the lack of exposure to SCD in undergraduates, and highlight the reasons behind the management of patients with additional needs being an essential part of the undergraduate curriculum and beyond. The article also explores the importance of SCD in treating patients in an increasingly diverse society, particularly for those with complications related to the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

Fig. 1

Survey of undergraduate students' experience of special care dentistry across the UK (n = 53)

Fig. 2

Mean number of decayed teeth among male adults aged ≤65 years in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, reproduced from Richard Watt et al., 'Understanding and tackling oral health inequalities in vulnerable adult populations: from the margins to the mainstream', British Dental Journal, 2019, Springer Nature